Back when my son Karl was 3 to 5 years old, he simply
loved to play tractors. Tractors were his life. He so looked
forward to getting up each morning, he hated to go to
bed at nite.

Karl had a passion for playing
tractors.

He had the sounds down pat, brrrr-ing or put-putt-ing....
he would drive those toy tractors around as far as his young
imagination would stretch. He plowed more acres and
baled more hay than dad did in real life.

In the young mind, he was a real farmer that had important
stuff to do......and he did it with enthusiasm.....and had a
whale of a lot of fun at the same time.

Pulling....did you mention tractor pulling? Of dear lord did
we love to go tractor pulling! If there was a pull within a
hundred miles, Dave and his little puller side kick Karl were
there.

All the pullers knew us. Believe it, at a big pull we got
there hours early to get good seats and then go down to
the "Pit" to look over the tractors. We went to farm stock
pulls, state pulls, & the big Grand National events.

Karl knew the name and brand of every Super Stock, Pro
Stock, or Modified Grand National tractor in the eastern
half of the U.S. (all Grand National pulling tractors have
their own name)

At home he pulled every tractor he had from the small
ones up to pedal tractors. Then would go out in the barn
and sit on dad's real tractors and pretend to pull them.

One Christmas I built a small replica of his favorite
Super Stock pulling tractor plus a miniature pulling sled.
(what tractors pull). Oh did he ever put pulling in high
gear then. Everyday there was a new pull he had going.
Karl would line up all his tractors and one by one he
hooked them to the sled and Brrrrrmmmmmmmm down
the track they'd go.

What Enthusiasm he had
What a Passion
What a tremendous amount of Fun he had

Folks would you like to know why he had so much fun and
tireless energy pulling and playing tractors?

Think seriously about this.......

It was because Karl Cole was who was
in control.

He called the shots. Events happened just the way he wanted
them. He determined when one of his tractors would break
down and he then knew he could fix it. He decided who
was going to win each pull. He decided when and where
each pull would be, which tractors were entered, when it
would start, and when it would end.

He was the boss....he was in charge.He controlled circumstances......they didn't control him.
The structure in his life was constructed by him.

He made his own choices, and they were surprisingly good
ones too for a 3 to 5 year old.

His circumstances were dictated by his
imagination.

Karl was one of the happiest children I've ever known.
Always had something fun going on, always had
something good happening.

His mother and I gave him a lot of freedom to express himself.
That was my philosophy when I home schooled him too,
freedom to explore, to learn and try new things, we were
always doing something new and different.

You wanna know a real good reason why people are un-happy?

Think it might be cause they're not
really the ones that
are in control of their lives?

Well who is in control then?

The boss
That JOB
Your time schedule
The Bills
Your spouse

People aren't free when they are
controlled by circumstances.

If you have a job, your life is structured around and dictated
by that job. It controls you.....you don't control it. That
job tells you when you will be there and where you will
be every day and then when it allows you to go home.
It controls how much money you make and how much
money you will spend. That job determines which kind of
house and car you will buy, and whether you'll buy the
best or the cheapest.

If you're in debt, the bank controls you. You have to have a
source of income to pay that monthly debt or else the
bank reposseses. You don't own that home with the
mortgage....the bank does. Let them call the loan and
if you don't have the cash immediately, the bank sells that
home or car or boat. The bank tells you how much you
will have left over After you pay them, and it tells you
how much to pay each month and on what date you pay.

When you go to a job, the boss controls what you will do,
how long you will do it, and the quality of what you do.
And if you don't stay within the guidelines, you lose the
job Buckwheat.

You're not in control - the boss, or the job, or the bank,
or you fill in the blanks - is in control.....no wonder you
don't have much fun is it?

Karl is now 15. He's no longer in control. The school
dictates what he will do every day, when he will be there,
when he will get up in the morning, when he will be allowed
to come home. His life is now structured around what
someone else decides for him to do....not what he wants to
do.

He doesn't have nearly the fun anymore. Ask him what is
going on in his life and he'll say, "nothin"......ask him how
the day went and he'll say, "I don't know." It's flat.....
no enthusiasm. No drive, no Passion.

You know what tho, when he's home and riding his dirt bike,
he's back in control. He's the man. He's Ricky Carmichael
(top dirt bike rider), he's the boss. He's excited, he's
enthusiastic.....he gets to make his own choices....he's having
a whale of a lot of fun.

He never talks about school, he talks about dirt bikes and
baseball.....umm...and girls too. But see the point.

Life is the most fun when you are in
control. Not when
someone or something else controls you. Reflect if you will
for a few minutes on some of the times in your life when
you had the most amount of fun.

I'll bet they were the times when you were the one who was
in control.